early made a voyage to Africa, the spot of L. E. L.'s childish speculations. Africa, therefore, was a congenial subject of conversation between them;-African habits, African horrors, and African wonders; the sea, the coast, the desert, the climate, and the people, even as a child such themes had attractions for her, and when they were descanted on she was a child still." NOTE 11, Stanza XXI. p. 95. "Nor from thy lute in numbers burst To charm the world." L. E. L. had contemplated writing several literary works during her stay in Africa, which was to have been three years. She dwelt frequently on the great solace which the execution of her literary plans would be to her. She said, "How deeply shall I value praise when I am away!" Her literary pursuits were to be her consolation in solitude; but, alas! her solitude was a deeper one than that of the green groves of Africa-it was the cold and lonely tomb. 66 NOTE 12, Stanza XXI. p. 95. Oh! couldst thou not control Thy scorn- the green-eyed monster' most accurst ?" "From a connection existing between Mr. Maclean and a native woman at Cape Coast, it is apparent from all the evidence, that there were things which a pure and noble-minded woman like L. E. L. is little disposed and ill prepared to bear."—Blanchard. NOTE 13, Stanza XXIV. p. 97. 66 Some shadowy foe? Or demon of the clime?" "The existence at Cape Coast of one, who, with her child, had formerly been its inhabitant, suggested to the minds of those who knew the hot blood and the fierce habits of the natives of Western Africa, that the English intruder at the Governor's residence had been sacrificed to a horrible spirit of female vengeance."-Blanchard. NOTE 14, Stanza XXIV. p. 97. "Not Thou, unsought.-" “The dreadful idea," says Blanchard, “became prevalent, that the deadly acid had been taken by the deceased, but not accidentally; that, racked by many nameless griefs, beset with distracting fears of peril and accumulating trouble, the object of our affection, and admiration, and sympathy, overwrought, over-excited by the very effort to suppress her sorrows and to write gay accounts of her health and spirits to her friends in England, had swallowed the fatal draught by design. It was said so publicly, and thence believed generally." NOTE 15, Stanza XXVII. p. 98. "On Afric's shore there is a lonely tomb." At Cape Coast, in Western Africa. NOTE 16, Stanza XXVIII. p. 99. "Yes, there beneath the castle wall she lies." "She sleeps in the barren sands of Africa, and the mournful music of the billows to which she listened in her solitary sea-girt dwelling, is now the dirge that resounds over her distant grave. She had herself predicted her own fate, though speaking in the character of another : "Where my fathers' bones are lying, There my bones will never lie. Mine shall be a lonelier ending, Where the shout and shriek are blending, Or perhaps a fate more lonely In some drear and distant ward, Where my weary eyes meet only Hired nurse and sullen guard.'" Fraser's Magazine for January, 1840. NOTE 17, Stanza XXVIII. p. 99. "And gleaming white her monument doth rise, Greeting the traveller's eye." "A handsome marble tablet is now, it appears, on its way to Cape Coast."-Blanchard. |